School closures targeted in Little Rock School District budget talks

Committee meetings begin today in the Little Rock School District on "facilities utilization." In other words, the district, which has no elected school board after a state takeover for academic deficiencies in a handful of schools, will be looking for schools to close to meet a $37 million budget cut in 2017-18.

Superintendent Michael Poore says no decisions will be made without community input. That is not the same thing as saying community input will determine the final outcomes.

The district has compiled documents about enrollment in current schools, demand in the now non-existent school board election zones and other factors. They should provide some tips on schools likely to be in the budget cutting targets. Look particularly at Zone 1 on the east side of the district, where available elementary seats far outnumber demand. (It is — you choose: ironic, stupid, inexplicable, inefficient, duplicative, wasteful — that this same zone has been targeted for a vast new eStem elementary charter school by the same state Board of Education that now runs the Little Rock School District.)